Reposting, A Memorial Day Invocation
We
gather together this morning to celebrate.
We celebrate a country of promised
freedom, and the continuing commitment to ensure that all people
might call themselves free.
We celebrate the many men and women who have
served in the military at our behest.
We celebrate the courage and
commitment of thousands of service people who have given their all in service to their country.
We
gather this morning to honor.
We honor all who have left behind
family, friends, and community to serve in the military.
We honor those who have loved
these United States enough to risk everything for her prosperity.
We honor men and women
throughout the years who have dedicated their lives to our freedom and our rights.
We
gather this morning to lament.
We lament the state of a world where
war seems the only or most expedient answer to
our nation’s problems.
We lament the state of our
nation which welcomes men and women back from war zones with silence
and refusal to hear the stories of war.
We lament the state of our
souls, ready to send others to do what we would dare not – and then refusing to recognize our
own culpability in what they have done.
We gather this morning to mourn.
We mourn for all those who
have given their lives in wars they believed in.
We mourn for all who have sacrificed their lives in wars they didn’t believe in.
We mourn for all who survived war zones, only to lose their lives in the fight against mental illness.
We mourn for all who have sacrificed their lives in wars they didn’t believe in.
We mourn for all who survived war zones, only to lose their lives in the fight against mental illness.
But most of all, we gather this morning to remember.
We remember the service personnel we have loved and lost.
We remember the service personnel we have loved and lost.
We remember the sacrifices of
so many in the service of their country.
And we remember our God, who
redeems the unredeemable; forgives the unforgivable; and encourages that
we love – both our neighbor and our enemy.
So, this morning let us celebrate, honor, lament, mourn and
remember. And, as President Abraham Lincoln concluded his second inaugural
address:
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
Please feel welcome to use in worship and/or reprint. I'd appreciate a citation where appropriate. :)